This application relates generally to software licensing and distribution systems and methods that employ biometric sample authentication.
Piracy currently exacts an immense toll on the revenues of software publishers. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the Software Publishers Association (SPA) estimate that revenue losses to the worldwide computer software industry due to piracy amounted to $11.4 billion in 1997, with as many as four in every ten business software applications being pirated. The entertainment software industry is also heavily burdened, with foreign counterfeit markets for video games estimated to range as high as 93%, according to the Douglas Consulting Group. The music industry is similarly affected, with as many as one in three copies produced globally being pirated.
These levels of piracy continue to take their toll despite enforcement actions and technical countermeasures. While particular enforcement actions have successfully stopped individual counterfeiting operations, they have failed to entirely deter others from taking their places. And while various technical piracy countermeasures, such as copy protection and mandated registration, have been proposed and deployed, none of these has been widely successful in ensuring that manufactures of mass-market software do not suffer substantial lost revenue from piracy.
In one general aspect, the invention features a software distribution method that includes offering software to a customer and storing biometric identification information received from the customer in a customer storage area. A biometric identification signal is received in response to customer interaction with a biometric interface, a match is detected between the biometric identification signal and the identification information stored in the customer storage area by the step of storing, and the customer is permitted to use the software in response to the step of detecting a match, after the step of offering.
In preferred embodiments, the method can further include receiving a payment commitment from the customer before the step of permitting the customer to use the software. The method can include presenting a selection of payment choices including at least one choice involving access based on biometric identification and at least one choice involving access without biometric identification, with the step of receiving a payment commitment being performed after the step of presenting the selection. The customer identification information can be received electronically through a public network and the step of receiving a payment commitment can also be conducted electronically through a public network. The biometric identification information can be stored in a portable machine-readable storage element, which can have a size on the order of a credit-card or smaller. A copy of the software can be conveyed to the user. The method can further include the steps of recording the software in a proprietary format and conveying to the customer a proprietary player capable of reading the proprietary format. The method can further include the steps of detecting a mismatch between the biometric identification signal and the identification information stored in the customer storage area, and permitting the customer to use the software a limited number of times in response to detecting a mismatch and after the step of offering. The step of permitting the customer to use the software a limited number of times may require a password from the customer. The method can further include the steps of storing replacement biometric identification information received from the customer in a customer storage area, receiving a biometric identification signal in response to customer interaction with a biometric interface, detecting a match between the biometric identification signal and the replacement identification information stored in the customer storage area by the step of storing, and permitting the customer to use the software in response to the step of detecting a match between the biometric identification signal and the replacement identification information. A biometric interface can be registered to validate the received biometric identification signal. The biometric identification information received from the customer can be stored in one of a plurality of customer storage entries in a centralized customer database. The step of offering can offer software for playing audio recordings. The step of offering can offer software for playing video recordings.
In another general aspect, the invention features a software distribution system that includes means for offering software to a customer, storage means for storing biometric identification information received from the customer in a customer storage area, and biometric sensing means. The system also includes means for detecting a match between a biometric identification signal from the biometric sensing means and the identification information stored in the customer storage area, and means for permitting the customer to use the software in response to a match signal from the means for detecting a match.
In a further general aspect, the invention features a licensed software use validation method that includes presenting a biometric interface to a customer, receiving a biometric identification signal in response to customer interaction with the biometric interface, detecting a match between the biometric identification signal and an entry in a customer storage area, which entry indicates that the customer is registered to access the software, and permitting the customer to use the software in response to the step of detecting a match.
In preferred embodiments, the steps of presenting, receiving, detecting, and permitting can be performed by a player with the steps of presenting, receiving, detecting, and permitting taking place after the player and rights in the software have been conveyed to the customer.
In another general aspect, the invention features a software player assembly for playing software for licensed customers that includes a biometric information storage area for storing an entry in a customer storage area, which entry indicates that a customer is registered to access the software, a biometric sensor having a data output, a match detector responsive to the biometric sensor and to the biometric information storage area and having a match signal output, and storage for the software having an access gate that has an enable signal input responsive to the match detector.
In preferred embodiments, the biometric information storage area, the biometric sensor, the match detector, and the storage for the software can all be housed in a single housing. The player assembly can weigh less than three pounds. The biometric sensor can be a fingerprint detector. The player assembly can be an audio recording player assembly. The player assembly can be a video recording player assembly.
In a further general aspect, the invention features a software player for playing software for licensed customers, which includes means for presenting a biometric interface to a customer, means for receiving a biometric identification signal in response to customer interaction with the biometric interface, means for detecting a match between the biometric identification signal and an entry in a customer storage area, which entry indicates that the customer is registered to access the software, and means for permitting the customer to use the software in response to detection of a match by the means for detecting a match.
In another general aspect, the invention features a software distribution system that includes an offer interface for offering software to a customer, an identification interface for receiving biometric information from a customer, and means for storing biometric identification information received from the customer in a customer storage area. In preferred embodiments, the identification interface can be operative to read the biometric information from a portable storage element. The system can further include means for receiving payment from the customer.
In a further general aspect, the invention features a transportable data memory that includes at least one software module operative to run on a player operated by a customer, and a biometric access restriction module operative to restrict access to the software module by the player based on a biometric characteristic of the customer. In preferred embodiments, the data memory can further include a biometric registration module operative to receive and store the biometric characteristic used by the biometric access restriction module.
Systems according to the invention may be advantageous in that they can assist software publishers in protecting their intellectual property rights. By providing systems and methods capable of verifying customer identity instead of verifying possession of proprietary objects and information, software publishers are less vulnerable to the duplication of such objects and information. A well-designed system according to the invention can therefore reduce the number of violations of a publisher""s intellectual property rights.
Deploying systems according to the invention can also help to reduce the ordinary customer""s temptation to copy software. Because a customer cannot make a copy of a software title that does not require his or her physiology to operate without specialized hardware, extensive cracking, and/or reverse-engineering, most customers will simply refrain from making unlicensed copies of software. Nor are a large number of ordinary customers likely to purchase black market unlicensed proprietary readers to bypass biometric access systems.
Systems according to the invention can make commercial-scale counterfeiting more difficult as well. To produce counterfeit copies, the counterfeiter must first bypass the biometric access system to extract a master copy. And even if the counterfeiter can make useable copies of this master, it will be dangerous and time-consuming for him or her to establish his or her own biometric registration system, and he or she will therefore be more likely to sell copies without biometric access methods. Such copies will be easily distinguishable from authorized copies and therefore harder to sell.
Software publishers who use systems according to the invention may also be able to employ business models that would otherwise be unworkable. Computer software is typically not rented, for example, because of the high risk of piracy. With this risk reduced, however, software publishers may be able to service a market need that could not be satisfied before.
In addition, systems according to the invention may provide their customers with some welcome access control that is easy-to-use and firmly enforced, without requiring them to purchase a separate, dedicated access control system. A web browser that employs biometric authentication, for example, cannot be used by children to access potentially harmful information on the internet. And an accounting system that requires an accountant""s thumbprint to be accessed will be resistant to casual browsing by coworkers.